This dissertation comparatively analyzes the architectural and visual histories of two black churches as examples of the material contribution of African Americans to the nation’s built environment. As cultural repositories, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) (1881-1886), Washington, D.C., and the Shrine of the Black Madonna #1, Pan African Orthodox Christian Church (1925/1957), Detroit, MI, are two sites that represent distinct forms of Black Nationalism. The history of Metropolitan AME uncovers aspects of late nineteenth century Classical Black Nationalism cultural practice. The Shrine of the Black Madonna #1 reflects the revisionist agenda of the Black Cultural Nationalist Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The objective of this study is to expand through a cultural lens the growing body of scholarship that seeks to excavate under-recognized African-American visual and architectural traditions. This study contrasts different modes of claiming space for cultural affirmation: construction and real estate acquisition. Chapter one offers a rationale for the artifactual interrogation of African American churches and outlines the interdisciplinary methodologies employed in the case studies. In chapter two, Metropolitan A.M.E. Church’s architectural history presents an instance of an African American community using popular architectural and artistic styles in an associative manner to articulate racial advancement. Chapter three documents the aesthetic legacy of Metropolitan A.M.E. Church by considering the sanctuary’s stained glass window program, mural commissions executed by two rarely-discussed African American artists, donated art objects and the circulation of images of the religious site. Chapter four explores the Shrine of the Black Madonna #1’s 1957 purchase of a 1925 Colonial Revival ecclesiastical structure. This assessment contextualizes the lived interventions of a radical congregation to understand how shifts in material and visual patterns expressed cultural identity. Chapter five critically explores the aesthetic history of the Shrine of the Black Madonna #1 that begins with the Black Madonna and Child (1967) chancel mural by Glanton V. Dowdell. As the conclusion indicates, African American churches contain visible but hidden histories that expand African American art by introducing new iconographic considerations and revealing new art communities.

A presente tese estuda a produção artística de oratórios domésticos manufaturados no Brasil, sobretudo nos séculos XVIII e XIX, e que hoje se encontram recolhidos às dependências de museus brasileiros, públicos e particulares. Também, a tese procura compreender a dinâmica de sua trajetória no contexto doméstico, tomando, em particular, a São Paulo setecentista e oitocentista como cenário ilustrativo. Para esta abordagem, prima-se em observar tais artefatos religiosos ante seus dois distintos universos funcionais, respectivamente: de cunho devocional, em que os mesmos se destinam comumente às práticas da oração; e de cunho litúrgico, quando especialmente preparados para a orientação das celebrações oficiais da Igreja católica. Assim, baseando-se nas informações oferecidas por um conjunto de testemunhos pertinentes, de fontes textuais e diante do próprio acervo de oratórios elencado para análise, chega-se a uma leitura bastante aproximada do trabalho artístico realizado em torno desta produção, bem como das formas de organização dos espaços da morada, no contexto das vivências religiosas do catolicismo, corroborando a hipótese de que tais artefatos figuravam como protagonistas de complexas relações, humanas e materiais, que ali se estabeleciam. / This thesis studies the artistic production of the domestic oratories made in Brazil, especially in the 18th and 19yh centuries that have been kept now in public or private Brazilian museums. The thesis also tries to understand the dynamics of its course within the domestic context having São Paulo, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as illustrative scenery. Concerning this approach, it is of utmost importance to observe such religious artifacts in their two distinct functional universes, respectively those of a devotional feature, when they are commonly intended to the act of praying, and those of a liturgical aspect when they were specially prepared for directing the official celebrations of the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, based upon information provided by a set of pertinent evidence, textual sources and before the collection of oratories that were chosen to be used for the analysis, a very close understanding of the artistic work performed towards this production, as well as the ways of organizing the spaces in a home within the context of the religious experiences of Catholicism, confirming the hypothesis that such artifacts were seen as the protagonists of the complex human and material relations that were establish there.

A presente tese estuda a produção artística de oratórios domésticos manufaturados no Brasil, sobretudo nos séculos XVIII e XIX, e que hoje se encontram recolhidos às dependências de museus brasileiros, públicos e particulares. Também, a tese procura compreender a dinâmica de sua trajetória no contexto doméstico, tomando, em particular, a São Paulo setecentista e oitocentista como cenário ilustrativo. Para esta abordagem, prima-se em observar tais artefatos religiosos ante seus dois distintos universos funcionais, respectivamente: de cunho devocional, em que os mesmos se destinam comumente às práticas da oração; e de cunho litúrgico, quando especialmente preparados para a orientação das celebrações oficiais da Igreja católica. Assim, baseando-se nas informações oferecidas por um conjunto de testemunhos pertinentes, de fontes textuais e diante do próprio acervo de oratórios elencado para análise, chega-se a uma leitura bastante aproximada do trabalho artístico realizado em torno desta produção, bem como das formas de organização dos espaços da morada, no contexto das vivências religiosas do catolicismo, corroborando a hipótese de que tais artefatos figuravam como protagonistas de complexas relações, humanas e materiais, que ali se estabeleciam. / This thesis studies the artistic production of the domestic oratories made in Brazil, especially in the 18th and 19yh centuries that have been kept now in public or private Brazilian museums. The thesis also tries to understand the dynamics of its course within the domestic context having São Paulo, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as illustrative scenery. Concerning this approach, it is of utmost importance to observe such religious artifacts in their two distinct functional universes, respectively those of a devotional feature, when they are commonly intended to the act of praying, and those of a liturgical aspect when they were specially prepared for directing the official celebrations of the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, based upon information provided by a set of pertinent evidence, textual sources and before the collection of oratories that were chosen to be used for the analysis, a very close understanding of the artistic work performed towards this production, as well as the ways of organizing the spaces in a home within the context of the religious experiences of Catholicism, confirming the hypothesis that such artifacts were seen as the protagonists of the complex human and material relations that were establish there.